charles_darwin

24
CHARLES DARWIN AND THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES
offering a free ride. Darwin’s statement in the introduction to The Zoology
of the Voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle that ‘‘in consequence of Captain
FitzRoy having expressed a desire that some scientific person
should be on board, and having offered to give up part of his accommodations,
I volunteered my services’’ downplays the machinations
that occurred. 22 In fact, there was an element of farce about the
events in Darwin’s life between August and December 1831. And in
the first few days of the voyage, Darwin discovered that the boat’s
motion made him violently seasick, adding a further element of
tragi-comedy.
When the Beagle set sail on 27 December, according to one of
Darwin’s biographers, ‘‘a new chapter in the history of science
began.’’ 23 This is true. Darwin wrote in his autobiography that ‘‘the
voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my
life, and determined my whole career.’’ 24 On 5 September, when
Darwin had his father’s permission and was soon to meet FitzRoy, he
wrote to Henslow that ‘‘Gloria in excelsis is the most moderate beginning
I can think of.’’ 25 Darwin was excited about his upcoming
adventure, and the research he did in the years between 1831 and
1836 established him in his career as a scientist and led to the writing
of one of the most important books in the history of science.
(All talk about Darwin becoming a clergyman was quietly dropped
by 1836.) But the voyage of the Beagle must be placed in a larger
historical context: it was not simply Darwin’s voyage.
The nineteenth century was the high point of the British
Empire, but this dominance was built on information and a calculated
use of resources. In South America, for example, there were
many opportunities for trade as new governments formed that had
liberated themselves from Spain and Portugal between 1790 and
1830. But British businessmen needed to know exactly what was in
South America before investing money there. The Royal Navy sent
ships to survey the area: mapping the shoreline, recording the
weather conditions, and looking for good places for ports and refueling
stations. This was the Beagle crew’s task. In addition to rechecking
the survey information for Patagonia, modern-day Argentina, and
Chile, FitzRoy and his crew would circumnavigate the world, giving
them the opportunity for further exploration in places such as
Australia.
But an empire is built on more than safe harbors. Knowing
what was available for trade was critical to British success in the
nineteenth century. And this is why naturalists were necessary additions
to the British explorations of the time. Discovering and mapping
new natural resources was as important as finding good ports